Joe Leydon

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, October 23, 2002

Lets face it: We live in an age when real-life events frequently are far more fantastically absurd or epochally horrific than anything an author or filmmaker would dare contrive.

Michael Moore, the droll director-narrator of Roger & Me and rabble-rousing author of Stupid White Men, is up to his usual tricks in Bowling for Columbine, his latest free-form filmic essay, which means that, even when hes taking shamelessly cheap shots, hes more often than not on target. His sharp-eyed aim serves him well in a first-person documentary intended as nothing less ambitious than a contemplation of gun culture, violent crime and media-stoked paranoia in the United States.

The provocative title alludes to a darkly ironic historical footnote: A few hours before they gunned down a teacher and 12 classmates at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold played a few games at an on-campus bowling alley. Moore doesnt claim to see any connection between the innocent pastime and the subsequent killing spree. On the other hand, Moore does find it somehow relevant that the Columbine massacre occurred on April 20, 1999 the heaviest day of U.S. bombing in Kosovo. And when he visits the nearby Lockeed Martin plant, 5,000 of whose employees live in the Littleton area, Moore none-too-subtly suggests another connection. Like, maybe when a father constructs nuclear missiles every day, his offspring may conclude its OK to shoot people.##M:(full story)##

Specious reasoning? Perhaps. But, then again, Moore doesnt pretend to offer definitive answers, only pointed questions. Such as, why does a Michigan bank offer guns to anyone opening a new account? (Moore shows up, deposit slip in hand, then ingenuously inquires: Isnt it dangerous to be giving away guns in a bank?) Or, why do so many Americans feel violent crime has reached epidemic proportions when FBI statistics indicate a marked decline in murder rates? (Could it be due to If it bleeds, it leads TV news?) Why did the National Rifle Association refuse to cancel plans for a pro-gun rally in Colorado just weeks after the Columbine killings? (Near the end of the movie, NRA spokesman Charlton Heston walks away from a conversation with Moore when he realizes hes being pardon the pun out-gunned.)

And by the way: Just why do so many Americans kill so many other Americans? Moore, a lifetime NRA member himself, raises serious doubts that all the mayhem can be blamed on the widespread availability of guns in the United States. After all, he notes, Canadians have equally easy access to firearms, and they dont shoot each other at nearly the same rate. But if its not guns or video games, or violent TV shows, or even Marilyn Manson music whats the cause of our colossal body count? Moore offers generous servings of food for thought throughout Bowling for Columbine. And while even people who share his views might dismiss some of what he serves as junk food or, worse, skewed statistics Moore provides an invaluable service by sparking debate and encouraging thought.

He does all of this, and more, while remaining one of the most savagely hilarious social critics this side of Jonathan Swift.

Examiner columnist Joe Leydon can be reached at joeleydon@earthlink.net.